How to Watch BBC iPlayer in the USA

Of course, everyone probably has their own favorite websites and many of them are linked to where you’re originally from. For example, I’m fairly certain that for most people in the UK the BBC site is one of the most popular. Indeed when I used to run a network of proxy servers for a large pharmaceutical company based in the United Kingdom, the BBC was easily one of the most popular sites.

It’s not surprising if you’ve every used it – not only do you get thousands of pages of news, local news, sports, arts, education, politics and cinema. You can also watch all the BBC TV channels live, all the national and local radio stations plus thousands of programmes archived in the BBC iPlayer section. Indeed it’s actually a whole entertainment and news centre in a single web site. I absolutely love it and I’m definitely not alone!

Unfortunately like many of the internet’s best media sites, access to the BBC iPlayer is actually limited to the United Kingdom only. In fact when you try and access the site, any IP address which is not from the UK will be redirected to the ‘International Version” of the site. This is basically a version with none of the TV live streams, archive or radio channels on it. Fortunately there is a way to bypass these blocks and re-directions and enjoy the wonderful BBC TV channels anywhere in the world.

How to Watch BBC iPlayer in the USA

It’s actually surprisingly simple to do, and indeed millions actively use this method every day and have done for many years. All you have to do is ‘hide’ your real IP address and display a British address instead. You do this by routing your internet connection through a server based in the UK, the BBC see’s this address rather than the real one. It’s sounds complicated but it’s really not, here’s a brief video showing you how it’s done.

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As you can see its a relatively straight forward process and there’s no real technical wizardry involved in learning how to watch BBC iPlayer in the USA or anywhere outside the UK. There are some caveats, the server needs to be fast otherwise the connection will be very slow to watch, remember you’re effectively relaying the video through an extra server. This used to be possible using ‘free proxies’ that you could find online, however those days are long gone now as the BBC like most media sites can detect and block proxies automatically. Speed is vital as there’s nothing worse than sitting down to watch Match of the Day and finding the video stream slow and stuttering.

There are lots of different services available however you should be careful which you use as many have been blocked or blacklisted. If you search online you will find posts and questions about their BBC iPlayer VPN not working – which is actually true. However there are a select few which have been working for more than a decade and continue to do so. Avoid those which offer ‘free trials’ as these get overloaded and blocked by the BBC, and those which openly advertise TV watching facilities – easy targets for legal departments. The best services are low key, secure VPN services which ‘fly under the radar’ and hide your location completely.

The advantage of using one of the professional services is that it can be used anywhere in the world and to unlock other sites. For example, you can use US servers to access sites like Hulu, Pandora and Netflix which can be inaccessible while travelling. Switch to a Canadian server to watch some of the great documentaries and shows on Canadian TV channels, then practice your French with M6 Replay the French broadcaster.

You can also use the VPN services to unlock other sites beyond multimedia web sites. Some banking sites restrict access based on your location, lots of gambling and casino sites block IP addresses from certain locations. Even YouTube videos are often only available to people in specific countries, just connect to that country to unlock!